Sure about that? Their pro player trades are not looking very good - Romanov is evolving into a shutdown 25TOI 1st pairing D who the Habs could really use paired with Hutson, and do we need to rehash Lekhonen deal?
You sure about that? Once upon a time, Francois Beauchemin was averaging more ice time that Niedermayer & Pronger in Anaheim. Nobody actually thought,
yeah, legit first pairing player.
I'd strongly argue he's playing those minutes by default because the alternative on the left side would be: Adam Pelech, who averaged 21 minutes / game for the last 5 years. Then you'd have Adam Boqvist (waiver claim 2 weeks ago), Scott Perunovich (traded for a 2026 5th round pick), Denis Cholowski (AHLer) or Mike Reilly (injured all year) as the alternatives. That Islanders team sucks and their key d-men are all RHD.
Even if Dobson, Pelech & Pulock were all active and playing, Romanov's the #4 of that bunch.
Prior to Dach's injury last year,
nobody was missing Romanov. Dach hasn't recovered from his injuries, nobody knows he ever will. And even if Romanov was still on this team, he's not playing more than Matheson, or Hutson, or Guhle, even if Guhle had to be kicked to the right side.
